Since Christ is Head of his Mystical Body, the Church, it follows that Mary, mother of Christ, is also mother of that body. As we have seen, the early Church Fathers called Mary the new Eve, in that as Eve was our mother by physical generation, so Mary is our mother by spiritual regeneration, in virtue of her Divine Son's redemption of humanity.

It is evident, then, that Christian devotion to the Mother of our Savior is as old as the Church itself, flourishing during the fourteen centuries prior to the Protestant Reformation.

As we approach the third millennium of Christianity, let us pray that a divided Christendom may be brought into unity by the intercession of Mary, who desires so greatly the gathering of her children into the one fold of Christ, her Son.

1. "Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen" (Rv 11:19).

The Solemnity of Mary's Assumption into heaven makes believers all over the world praise the Mother of the Lord.

We turn to her with faith, so "that she, who aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers, may now, exalted as she is above all the angels and saints, intercede before her Son in the fellowship of all the saints, until all families of people, whether they are honored with the title of Christian or whether they still do not know the Savior, may be happily gathered together in peace and harmony into one People of God, for the glory of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity".

2. We greet you, glorious Mother of the Redeemer, Ark of the Covenant, in whom the mystery of Redemption was fulfilled: in you the promise of Emmanuel, God-with-us, became a reality, and God was made our brother.

We greet you, humble Handmaid of the Lord, who gave the Son of God to mankind, and, as the obedient Woman, by your faith you taught us to accept with docility all that he asks of us.

We greet you Blessed Virgin, who accompanied and followed your divine Son, suffering and crucified, to his death, and at the foot of the Cross became "our Mother", Mother of the Church and of all humanity.

We greet you, Virgin who prayed with the Apostles in the Upper Room: by your intercession for us you obtained the gift of the Holy Spirit, who renews heaven and earth.

We greet you, glorious Virgin, in the mystery of your Assumption into heaven: in you God the Father anticipated what he intends to accomplish at the end of time for all those who die in communion with Jesus Christ, his Son and your Son.

We greet you, Queen of Angels and Saints; you intercede for us from heaven and sustain us on our earthly pilgrimage to the promised land: Keep our faith alive, our hope firm and our love fervent for God and for our brothers and sisters.

3. In contemplating the mystery of your Assumption O Mary, let us learn to evaluate earthly affairs in the proper light. Help us never to forget that our true and definitive dwelling place is heaven, and support us in our effort to live together here below in ever greater brotherhood and solidarity. Make us workers of justice and peacemakers in the name of Christ, our true peace.

For, as we have seen, neither the early Church nor the Fathers understood them to mean that the alternative to "eating and drinking unworthily" consists in abstaining from Communion, that reverence for the Sacrament and fear of its profanation ought to result in refusing the Divine Gifts. Such obviously was not the thought of St. Paul himself, for it is indeed in his Epistles, in his exhortations, that we find the first formulation of the apparent paradox which in reality constitutes the basis of Christian ethics and the source of Christian spirituality.

Once more from this divine trap there is no escape by means of human reasoning when we apply to the Divine Mysteries our human criteria, measures, and rationalizations. There is something spiritually frightening in the ease and good conscience with which bishops, priests, and laymen alike, but perhaps especially those who pretend to be well versed in "spirituality", accept and defend as traditional and self-evident the contemporary sacramental situation: the one in which a member of the Church is considered to be "in good standing" if for fifty one weeks he has not approached the Chalice because of his "unworthiness" but then, during the fifty-second, after having complied with a few rules, gone through a four-minute confession and received absolution, he suddenly becomes "worthy" in order to return, immediately after communion, to his "unworthiness". It is frightening because this situation so obviously rejects that which constitutes the real meaning and also the cross of Christian life and which is reveals to us in the Eucharist the impossibility to accommodate Christianity to our measures and levels, the impossibility to accept it except on God’s, and not our, terms.

Such then is the essential "paradox" of the sacramental life. It would be an error, however, to limit it to Sacraments alone. The sin of profanation, of which St. Paul speaks when he mentions "eating and drinking unworthily", embraces the whole of life because the whole of life, the whole man, body and spirit, were sanctified by Christ and made holy, and being holy "are not our own". The only question addressed to man is whether he is willing and ready to accept, in humility and obedience, this holiness so freely and lovingly given to him first of all as the cross on which he is to crucify the old man with his lust and his corruption, as that which judges him all the time, and then as the grace and power to fight constantly for the growth of the new man in him, of that new and holy life of which he has been made a partaker. We partake of Holy Communion only because we have been made holy by Christ and in Christ, and we partake of it in order to become holy, i.e. to fulfill the gift of holiness in our life. It is when one does not realize this that one "eats and drinks unworthily" – when, in other terms, one receives Communion thinking of one’s self as "worthy" through one’s own, and not Christ’s holiness, or when one receives it without relating to the whole of life as its judgement, but also as the power of its transformation, as forgiveness, but also as the inescapable entrance into the "narrow path" of effort and struggle.

To make us realize this, not only with our mind but our entire being, to lead us into that repentance which alone opens to us the doors to the kingdom, is the real meaning and content of our preparation for Holy Communion.

In our present situation, shaped in many ways by the practice of infrequent communion, the preparation for it means primarily the fulfillment by the communicant-to-be of certain disciplinary and spiritual prescriptions and rules: abstention from otherwise permitted acts and activities, reading of certain canons and prayers, abstention from food during the morning before Communion etc. But before we come to this preparation in the narrow sense of the word, we must, in the light of what has been said above, try to recover the idea of preparation in its wider and deeper meaning.

Ideally, of course, the whole life of a Christian is and should be preparation for Communion, just as it is and should be the spiritual fruit of Communion. "Unto Thee we commit our whole life and hope, O Lord…" we read in the liturgical prayer before Communion. All of our life is judged and measured by our membership in the Church and therefore by our participation in the Body and Blood of Christ. All of it is to be filled with and transformed by the grace of that participation. The worst consequence of our present practice is that it "cuts off" preparation for Communion from life itself, and by doing this makes our real life even, more profane, more unrelated to the faith we profess. But Christ did not come to us so that we may set apart a small segment of our life for our "religious obligations". He claimed the whole of man and the totality of his life. And He left with us the Sacrament of Communion with Himself so that it may sanctify and purify our whole existence and relate all aspects of our life to Him. A Christian thus is one who lives between: between the coming of Christ in the flesh and His return in glory to judge the quick and the dead: between Eucharist and Eucharist – the Sacrament of remembrance and the Sacrament of hope and anticipation. In the early Church it was precisely the rhythm of that participation in the Eucharist – the living in the remembrance of the one and in the expectation of the next – which truly shaped Christian spirituality and gave it its true content, the participation, while living in this world, in the new life of the world to come and the transformation of the "old" by the "new".

In practical terms this preparation consists, first of all, in the awareness not only of "Christian principles" in general, but precisely of Communion itself – both of the one that I have already received and which, by making me a partaker of the Body and Blood of Christ, judges my life, challenges me with the inescapable call to be what I have become, and of the one that I shall receive, in the life and holiness and approaching light of which time itself and all the details of my life acquire an importance, a spiritual significance which from a purely human and "secular" point of view they would not have. A venerable priest, when asked how one can live a Christian life in the world, answered: "Simply by remembering that tomorrow (or after tomorrow, or in a few days) I shall receive Holy Communion".

One of the simplest ways to generate the beginning of that awareness is to include prayers before and after Communion into our daily rule of prayer. Usually we read the prayers of preparation just before Communion and the prayers of thanksgiving just after, and having read them, we simply return to our "profane" life. But what prevents us from reading one of several prayers of thanksgiving during the first days of the week after the Sunday Eucharist, and the prayers of preparation during the second part of the week , thus introducing the awareness of the Sacrament into our daily life, referring the whole of our life to the Holy Gifts received and about to be received? This of course is only one step. Much more is needed and, above all, a real rediscovery – through preaching, teaching and counseling – of the Eucharist itself as the Sacrament of the Church and therefore the very source of all Christian life.

This repentance begins however not with preoccupation with one’s self but with the contemplation of the holiness of Christ’s gift, of the heavenly reality to which one is called. It is only because and inasmuch as we see the "bridal chamber adorned" that we can realize that we are deprived of the garment needed to enter therein. It is only because Christ has come to us that we can truly repent, i.e. see ourselves as unworthy of His love and of His holiness and thus desire to return to Him. Without this true repentance, this inner and radical "change of mind", communion for us will be for "damnation" and not "healing". Yet it is the very fruit of repentance that, by making us realize our total unworthiness, it takes us to Christ as the only salvation, healing and redemption. By revealing to us our unworthiness, repentance fills us with that desire, that humility, that obedience which alone, in the eyes of God, makes us "worthy". Read the prayers before Communion. They all contain that one cry:

"….Partaking of the Divine Mysteries which deify man, I am no longer alone, but with Thee, O my Christ… And I shall not be left without Thee, the Life-Giver, my breath, my life, my joy, the salvation of the world".

Such is then the goal of all preparation, all repentance, all efforts and prayers: that we may love Christ and "with boldness and without condemnation" partake of the Sacrament in which Christ’s love is given to us.

Everyone capable of thanksgiving is capable of salvation and eternal joy.

Thank you, O Lord, for having accepted this Eucharist, which we offered to the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and which filled our hearts with joy, peace and righteousness of the Holy Spirit.

Thank You, O Lord, for having revealed Yourself unto us and given us the foretaste of Your Kingdom.

Thank You, O Lord, for having united us to one another in serving you and your Holy Church.

Thank You, O Lord, for having helped us to overcome all difficulties, tensions, passions, temptations and restored peace, mutual love and joy in sharing the communion of the Holy Spirit.

Thank you, O Lord, for the sufferings You bestowed upon us, for they are purifying us from selfishness and reminding us of the "one thing needed:" Your eternal Kingdom.

Thank you, O Lord, for having given us this country where we are free to worship You.

Thank you, O Lord, for this school, where the name of God is proclaimed.

Thank You, O Lord, for our families: husbands, wives and especially, children who teach us how to celebrate Your Holy Name in joy, movement and holy noise.

Thank you, O Lord, for everyone and everything.

Great are You, O Lord, and marvelous are Your deeds, and no word is sufficient to celebrate Your miracles.

Lord, it is good to be here! Amen.

(Last sermon of Father Alexander Schmemann,

read at the Divine Liturgy on Thanksgiving Day, 1983)

There was a little boy named Johnny, who was visiting his grandparents on their farm. Johnny was given a slingshot to play with out in the woods. He practiced in the woods, but he could never hit the target. And getting a little discouraged, he headed back to dinner.

As Johnny was walking back he saw Grandma's pet duck. Out of impulse, he let the slingshot fly, hit the duck square in the head and killed it! Johnny was shocked and grieved . . . and in a panic, he hid the dead duck in the woodpile, only to see his sister watching.

Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing. After lunch that day Grandma said, "Sally, let's wash the dishes." But Sally said, "Grandma, Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen!" Then she whispered to him, "Remember the duck?" So Johnny quietly did the dishes.

Later that day, Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing and Grandma said, "I'm sorry but I need Sally to help make supper." But Sally just smiled and said, "Johnny told me he wanted to help make supper!" She whispered again, "Remember the duck?" So Sally went fishing, leaving Johnny to help make supper.

After several days of doing both his chores and Sally's, Johnny couldn't stand it any longer. He approached Grandma, confessing he had killed her pet duck.

Grandma knelt down, gave Johnny a hug saying, "Sweetheart, I know what happened. You see, I was standing at the window and I saw the whole thing. But because I love you, I forgave you. I was wondering how long you would let Sally make a slave out of you."

WHATEVER your past, NO MATTER WHAT you've done . . . WHATEVER the enemy repeatedlyasked you of . . . ALLOW GOD to free you from the shackles of sin by CONFESSION!

Long ago there were a husband and wife. They loved each other so much that they devoted all their life to living a life of pure Christian and divine love which is called "agape" (heavenly love based on selflessness).

Although they were poor, each of them had one thing which was dearly loved. The wife had long and wonderful hair. Her husband had a gold watch which he had inherited from his deceased father.

When Christmas approached, each of them thought to bring a present to the other. The wife thought of selling her beautiful hair to buy a golden chain for her husband’s pocket watch. Soon she had her long hair cut and bought the golden chain.

On the other hand, and in the meantime, the husband made up his mind to sell his watch to buy a golden comb decorated with jewels for his wife’s long hair. As soon as he arrived home and saw her hair having been cut, he was stunned. But his surprise was not an expression of anger at all. He only wondered how each of them sacrificed the best thing he or she had for the welfare of the other. In the end, they hugged and thanked each other.